It’s fairly common knowledge that this movie star is Cuban–despite her blonde hair and blue eyes, her name is a big clue. Since she is Cuban, it’s natural to wonder if she knows how to speak Spanish.
It is thought that Cameron Diaz does not speak Spanish. Her father, Emilio Diaz, and his side of the family were Cuban-American, and they did speak Spanish. Her mother, Billie Diaz, was Native American, Italian, and German.
Read more below to find out about Diaz’s life growing up and other fun facts about the star.
The Diaz Family History
While this retired actress doesn’t speak Spanish, she did grow up hearing it spoken, eating Cuban food, watching telenovelas, and other parts of Cuban culture.
Diaz was born in San Diego and grew up in Long Beach, California. Parts of her family history begin in Spain, where her father’s family was originally from before his ancestors moved from Spain to Cuba.
The actress talked about her family history in an interview with Jack Rico while promoting her movie Bad Teacher. “My father is Cuban,” she explains. “Spanish via Cuba to Tampa, Florida, where my family came many generations ago back in the turn of the century Spanish American War.”
As she described, they lived in “the first Cuban settlement before Miami, outside of Cuba, in a place called Ybor City and they still have some cigar factories there to this day. But my family were cigar rollers. I have all of my great grandfather’s cigar presses and choppers.”
“I grew up with the Cuban heritage, the Cuban culture, the food, the language, although I don’t speak Spanish… well, I can barely speak English,” Diaz joked. Not speaking the language didn’t stop her from embracing her Cuban heritage, be it eating delicious Cuban dishes or enjoying telenovelas with her grandmother.
Watch Diaz talk about her family history and how she grew up with comedian George Lopez on his show, Lopez Tonight.
So Diaz doesn’t speak Spanish, but what are some of the star’s hidden talents?
Fun Facts and Hidden Talents
While Diaz is now known for her many roles in many blockbuster movies, the star didn’t start as an actress. In fact, before her first role in 1994 with Jim Carrey in The Mask, she had no acting experience at all.
Diaz’s career started when she was 16, and she worked as a model for different famous brands. At 21, when she got the role, she immediately started taking acting classes and her acting career took off from there.
The actress also went to high school with Snoop Dogg, who was a year older than her. “He wore lots of ponytails, and I’m pretty sure I bought weed from him,” she joked in the 2011 interview with George Lopez.
She was also a part of her high school’s dance team called the Polyettes, named after their school, Long Beach Polytechnic High School. Her early dancing skills helped her throughout her career, proven in Diaz’s dancing scenes in Charlie’s Angels.
The director of Charlie’s Angels, McG, talked about how the dancing scenes came easily to the actress. “Cameron didn’t even take too much time learning this choreography. She’s just such a natural athlete. She got it together within an hour of rehearsal.”
Diaz has also been an outspoken advocate against the negative stigma of aging, especially in Hollywood. As she said about one of her idols, Helen Mirren, “That woman is drop-dead sexy. She’s not trying to turn back the hands of time, she is just taking care of herself.”
Diaz is also the author of two health books created to educate people on how to care for themselves and their bodies and to demystify the process of aging.
Many fans of Diaz have embraced her philosophy, who was beautiful at the start of her career and is beautiful now, in posts like this one.